Portland Trail Blazers: 5 goals for Maurice Harkless in 2017-18

With the 2017-18 NBA regular season fast approaching, here are five goals for Portland Trail Blazers small forward Maurice Harkless.

Last season, Portland Trail Blazers wingman Maurice Harkless averaged career highs in points (10.0 per game), rebounds (2.8), assists (1.1), steals (1.1) and field goal percentage (50.3 percent) in a career-high 28.9 minutes per game. He also started 69 out of the 77 games he played, earning the top spot on the depth chart above Evan Turner, Jake Layman and former Blazers swingman, Allen Crabbe.

In addition, Harkless has continually improved since joining the Blazers in 2015, and it’s unlikely that we’ll see a significant drop in his upward trajectory any time soon. Standing 6’9″ at just 24 years of age, Harkless hasn’t even begun to touch his prime yet.

This season, Harkless has a prime opportunity to be the difference-maker on a fringe-playoff team like the Trail Blazers. After trading away Crabbe — the second most efficient 3-point shooter in the NBA —  the Blazers will definitely look to Harkless to fill the scoring vacancy on the wing, among other things.

But if he’s to fill his role properly, there’s a couple things on which he’ll definitely need to improve. Here are five goals that can help him get to where he needs to be.